Trump the Psychopath

Jerk. Liar. Bully. Thug. Con artist. Scumbag. Asshole.

In the four months since the inauguration of Donald Trump, these terms have regrettably become aptly descriptive staples of our political lexicon. We’ve officially arrived at a dystopian moment in our nation's history when our elected officials don’t earn respect because they don't give it.

If it isn’t a flippant remark from a Republican “representative” to his outraged constituents at a health care town hall, it’s Trump shoving another world leader to get to the front of the line, a Republican sailing to victory after publicly assaulting a journalist, or an entire Republican Congress looking the other way as allegations of treason engulf the Trump administration in seemingly never ending scandal.

It feels as though everywhere we turn we are inundated with not just unbridled arrogance and entitlement, but a refusal by the “powers that be” to hold any of the bad actors accountable. In fact, it's as though acting badly has now become a virtue in Trump’s America, and those who behave the worst are being rewarded rather than punished for their misdeeds. Or to quote Donald Trump explicitly, “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

So we watch in horror and disgust as the man who bragged about getting away with serial sexual molestation not only fires the very people tasked with leading the investigation into his campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia, but boasts about his efforts to obstruct justice. By day he makes the mundane rounds required of the office, but by night he’s a keyboard commando, hurling defensive accusations and insults at his detractors online in response to the latest breaking corruption allegations.

He has become the social media equivalent of Christian Bale’s portrayal of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, prowling the Twitter streets wielding his cellphone as a makeshift chainsaw. He inhabits the fantasy world of his own self-serving mind, in which nothing he does is wrong or unjustifiable, and his actions are rendered legitimate and lawful simply by virtue of the fact that he took them. He and his underlings spare no expense in defending the indefensible.